Martin Lund’s Jazz Festival: The Man Brings the Music to the Island

— by Margie Doyle —

Martin Lund, founder of the Orcas Island Jazz Festival

Martin Lund, jazzman extraordinaire, considers himself a “musical chef.” He delights in exploring genres and talents of all kinds, and now for the second year, he’s organized a Labor Day Weekend Jazz Festival.

The Jazz festival deals with different talents from night to night:

• Friday: Oliver Groenewald
• Saturday: Greta Matassa
• Sunday: Pearl Django

Lund says, “I love the process of putting the Festival together and it brings a lot of people  great pleasure. People can have a great time, and over the Labor Day weekend, we can have concerts on three consecutive nights.

“The next day people come up to me and tell me in the street how much they enjoy it. I’m like a musical cook, with the  desire, knack, and skills for putting sounds together whether as organizer, arranger or group member,

“I’m one of those lucky people that had classical training but as a two-year-old on, had Mom and Dad bringing musicians into the house.” He remembers songs from the Big Band era, through the Andrews Sisters and Frank Sinatra, to early Rock and Roll and the great Girl Groups of the Boomers.

His own musical performing started, “when Mother grabbed ahold of me at age of 6. She sat me down for piano lessons, her highball in one hand and a Norwegian ruler in the other and she said, “I will teach you.” Lessons happened weekly or more often, depending on her schedule. “I had to practice every day for half an hour, and I swear the clock went backward that half hour. Finally when I was about 10 she gave up on me. That was my start.”

But music grabbed hold of him when he was in middle school. “My saving grace was Mr. Mason, the seventh-grade band teacher, Mr. Magic. He was a hell of a motivator.”

At the time, Martin was playing a metal clarinet. In his school band, “I was the worst clarinet player out of 13 clarinet players. I told my Mom, ‘I need a wooden clarinet.’

“She told me that when I made first chair with my metal clarinet, she’d buy me a wooden one. ‘I’m sure you’ll think of something,’ she said when I said I’d never make first chair.”  So time went on, and with the belief of his band teacher and his goal in mind, Martin challenged the second chair, then the first chair. He says, “When you have a vision about one thing, and you make it, then this is really fun and it changes your life.”

He also remembers Mr. Mason encouraging him, telling him, “You could be the best clarinet player, not just in this band, but the best clarinet player that ever came through here.”

Martin says, “It was having that one someone believing in me.” And he adds, “It was my obligation to take advantage of that.”

So leaving high school, he wanted to be a clarinet player in a symphony orchestra, but knew that he had to find a way to earn a living. He joined the Army and even though he was exposed to jazz as a young kid; his idea of jazz was strictly Dixieland.

Then in the Army, “The Black guys would play Miles Davis and Coltrane to me, and I thought ‘Why are they making mistakes and playing weird notes?’ Gradually your vocabulary gets bigger and you incorporate what you’re hearing and your world gets bigger.

Oliver Groenewald

“It was great for creativity. Jazz players are taught by their elders in jam sessions until finally you’re an improvisor; and you always make mistakes and take that as part of life.”

Lund is in the process of writing a book, guiding teachers to teach improvisation and plans a workshop under his non-profit umbrella organization, Orcas Open Arts, to teach Orcas kids and “consenting adults” how to improvise this fall.

But first, the Jazz Festival this weekend, Sept. 2, 3 and 4. Organizing the festival is kind of organic, Martin says. “I see what works for people, what they like.”

Oliver Groenewald’s Newnet comes to the U.S. from Germany for a taste of European jazz. Oliver is married to Willie Thomas’ daughter Wendy Thomas.

Greta Matassa

Greta Matassa is a “vocalist par excellence” says Martin. “She can change something up within two measures, and though of course she has her own sound, she can go from Doris Day to Ella Fitzgerald. She’s extremely aware of what’s going on stage. Joining Greta will be Charlie “Hot Lips” Porter.

Pearl Django returns from last year’s inaugural Jazz Festival. “They’re so great,” says Martin, “I’ll pick them up in a big van and they’ll play, we’ll feed them and then they go back to Seattle the same night. They’re the best in that genre, the feeling of Parisian jazz clubs when the Nazis came through.”

Public outreach includes a live jam session on Saturday Sept. 3 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Village Green.

FRIDAY NIGHT SHOW: OLIVER GROENEWALD NEWNET

• Brad Allison: 1st trumpet, flugelhorn
• Oliver Groenewald: 2nd trumpet, flugelhorn and composer
• Dan Marcus: tenor and bass trombone, bass flugelhorn, was a member of the Big Bands of Ray Charles and Woody Herman . . . has worked with many “names” – Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Stan Kenton’s jazz orchestra, Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder
• Jay Thomas: alto and soprano sax, has been a jazz master in Seattle for decades
• Travis Ranney: tenor sax, recognized in Seattle as one of the very best jazz improvisers in the city.
• Pete Gallio/Dan Wickham: baritone sax has toured with Artie Shaw Orchestra, Woody Herman Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey, performed with Dizzie Gillespie, Diane Schurr, the Temptations
• John Hansen: piano, keyboard, one of the most “in-demand” jazz pianists in the Northwest
• Paul Gabrielson/Chuck Kistler: bass
• Adam Kissler: drums

SATURDAY NIGHT SHOW: GRETA MATASSA and her sextet

Greta Matassa has been called “One of the most talented singers working in jazz today.”  “Voted ‘Northwest Vocalist of the year’ by Earshot Jazz seven times in 15 years.”  Honored with their lifetime achievement award in 2014.

Jazz legend John Clayton called Greta “one of the best jazz vocalists we have to boast about these days.” Dee Daniels said she “is the consummate jazz vocalist of modern times. Storytelling. Scat. Phrasing. Improvisation. Connection.” Enjoy!

Greta has been a mainstay on Seattle’s Jazz stages for many years and with her recent successful dates at New York’s Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center, tours of Russia, Singapore and Hawaii, Japan and New Orleans. Greta has released eight CD’s on the respected jazz label Origin Records and a DVD live concert with guitarist Mimi Fox. Her latest CD, “I Wanna be Loved” (Resonance Records) was critically acclaimed.

Greta is also a respected and generous teacher. She has been on faculty at Jazz Camp West, Drayton Harbor Jazz Festival and The Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.  Greta is also one the most respected jazz educators in the country, teaching privately and leading master classes and clinic work with aspiring singers.

Pearl Django

SUNDAY NIGHT SHOW: PEARL DJANGO

Pearl Django is one of the “most highly regarded Hot Club style groups working today.”  Although the band’s roots are firmly in the music made famous by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, its extensive repertoire includes traditional jazz classics and original compositions.

They have played at the prestigious Festival Django Reinhardt in Samois sur Seine and have been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” The band’s signature style is marked by pristine and dexterous string work, colors of Bal Musette, the steady pulse of rhythm guitar and an unmistakable swing that delights audiences of all musical sensibilities.

And the Orcas Island Jazz Festival is growing, with plans for other concerts and educational outreach. Last year’s Jazz Festival introduced Orcas Island audiences to Paula Santoro, who will return to Orcas on Oct. 15.

Tickets for the Orcas Island Jazz Festival are available at https://orcascenter.org/events/martin-lunds-orcas-island-jazz-festival/

Thanks to Kristen Wilson!